Post-war, peri-youth: Physical and social remnants of the Tajik Civil War in childhood environments

Abstract

Militarism shaped the physical dimensions of childhood in Tajikistan during the Tajik Civil War (1993–1997). Even in civilian zones, children interacted with military artifacts during daily play: children made slingshots from gas masks, played on rubble, and constructed whistles from bullets. Through a qualitative study exploring space construction and normalization among Tajik youth, the article examines the role physical remnants of militarism played in their childhoods. The analysis of their narratives explores how youth navigate and understand environments shaped by conflict.

Militarization of childhood(s) in Donbas: ‘Growing together with the Republic’

“…Similar to an objectified child, this understanding of children's agency precludes us from an understanding of children as 'complex social actors who might as readily align themselves with power, privilege, and injustice as against it' (Beier, 2020b: 230). In the context of militarization in D/LNR, this more complicated picture of lived childhoods allows for a critical analysis revealing spaces of everyday violence and roles children perform in shaping them (see also Agathangelou and Killian, 2011;Ahlness, 2020;Beier, 2011;Danilova and Dolan, 2020;Rech, 2016;Woodyer and Carter, 2020). Ann Agathangelou and Kyle Killian (2011: 22), in their analysis of militarization of Cypriot childhood, for example, illustrate how a 'child's emergence as militarized' represents a solution to geopolitical and social problems.…”

“…Ann Agathangelou and Kyle Killian (2011: 22), in their analysis of militarization of Cypriot childhood, for example, illustrate how a 'child's emergence as militarized' represents a solution to geopolitical and social problems. Ahlness (2020) demonstrates how militarization affects childhoods during the civil war in Tajikistan and, importantly, how children navigate and comprehend environments shaped by conflict. Tara Woodyer and Sean Carter (2020), in their study of militarization of childhood through toys, reveal how the entanglement of childhood with geopolitics finds children engaged with militarisms as political subjects.…”